What A Week For Area High School Sports

An interesting and exciting week of area High School sports. I, and all of you fans, were treated to some unusual scores and other happenings.

Pine Bluffs came to Kimball on a Tuesday evening and once again both their girls and boys are having great success on the basketball courts. The boys have only 1 loss and that was to Laramie, one of the state’s largest programs, and the girls came to Kimball with only 2 losses.

The Hornet boys put on a shooting exhibition as they netted 15 treys led by Justus Golding with 6 of his own. They won over our Kimball boys 78-51.

The Pine Bluffs girls can put 4 girls listed at 6’0” on the court at one time and what coach wouldn’t love to have that situation? The smaller Kimball team gave a great effort however and entertained the crowd with a near upset, losing in the final seconds 51-49.

And as you would expect, Pine brought a good following of fans, and whenever Kimball and Pine Bluffs meet up, and whichever gymnasium, the place is pretty much full. It was a fun night.

It was also Senior Parents Night for Kimball and the five senior boy basketball players honored, along with their parents were Brady Kilgore, Cory Travis, Zane Anthony, Jaren Winstrorn, and Izaak Reuter.

The two senior Student Managers recognized were Jacob Walker, and Luis Portillo.

The three senior girls from the Lady Longhorn basketball program were Lacey Klinkhammer, Madison Wynne and Kate Reader, along with student manager Sheridan Magninie.

The two senior wrestlers were Toby McManigal and Jordan Cluff, and how fitting that both of these young men have qualified for the State Wrestling Tournament this week in Omaha. Yes, it was a very special night.

Also this past reporting week, Kimball went to Hemingford on a Friday night and all four Kimball teams won! Of special note here is the boy’s JV game where they won 97-58. I have been covering area sports for many years and I know I have never heard of a JV game scoring that high.

And how about this, they were behind 39-33 at halftime and came back to score 64 points in the second half and hold Hemingford to just 19! Kimball had 11 treys in that win.

Kimball’s Mike Daum led his South Dakota State team to another win, beating North Dakota 80-55. Mike had 29 points and 20 rebounds, was 10/19 from the field and 8/8 at the foul line.

They play at UNO in Omaha tonight (Thursday), so all of you Mike Daum fans who live down east better make plans to be there.

Donna Defreece, a long time Kimball resident, is excited to share some news about her grandson, Jack O’Brien, who at age 15 is already attracting a lot of attention from

NHL teams. Jack is a sophomore in high school in Broomfield, Michigan, where he lives with his parents in the suburb of Detroit. He is the son of the former Karen Defreece, a 1964 graduate of Kimball High, where she was herself an outstanding student/athlete.

Young O’Brien and a high school teammate play with the Little Caesars U15 Hockey Team, but will soon be moving to Portland, Oregon, after signing to join the Portland Winterhawks. They are now on Portland’s Protected List, rather than being drafted through the WHL draft.

For any of you Hockey fans who might know more about the sport than I do, Jack plays center. I hope by now you get the point that Donna’s grandson is something special and as his career progresses, we hope she will keep us all informed.